1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to moving equipment and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a movable platform that can be configured as a pallet or a dolly.
2. Description of Related Art
Pallets and dollies are in extensive use worldwide to facilitate the movement of goods. Both pallets and dollies may be described as low to the ground, portable platforms on which goods may be stacked for storage or moving. The two devices are distinguished primarily by their type of undersurface or ground contact. Pallets have a fixed, non-rolling bottom surface, whereas dollies have wheels, with or without brakes.
A common type of pallet bottom surface is a skid, which is a continuous plank that provides support along its whole length. Pallets generally also include open ends configured to receive the forks of a manual pallet jack, motorized forklift truck, or other lifting device, so that the palletized load can be raised and moved about easily.
Pallets are particularly suitable for storing goods, such as in a racking arrangement, at a warehouse, moving goods on conveyor belts and roll conveyors, and for transporting goods between distant locations, where the pallets are loaded onto shipping containers, trucks, railway cars, and other vehicles. Dollies are better suited for the internal movement of goods within a given location where pallet moving equipment such as manual pallet jacks or forklift trucks would be unwieldy or costly. For example, unloading a shipment of goods at a supermarket is often more efficiently accomplished by having the stocking clerk wheel a dolly holding the goods to the appropriate display section of the store, rather than through use of a forklift.
In order to achieve efficient shipping and distribution of goods, it is often desirable to transfer the goods from one device to another, and in particular from a pallet to a dolly. However, physically removing goods from one movable platform and re-loading them on another is inefficient and time consuming. As a result, attempts have been made to create movable platforms that can function as both pallets and dollies, where the user can switch the platform functionality as needed. As a pallet, the undersurface would be one or more skids, and as a dolly, the undersurface would be wheels. An example of such a combination device is U.S. Pat. No. 7,537,222 to Hadar. This patent shows a device in which dolly wheels are placed at a fixed height relative to the load bearing deck, and various displacement mechanisms are used to extend or retract pallet skids as appropriate.